Sorry I meant a goodwill gesture for the inconvenience (free stuff!). Of course the new steering lock motor if foc.
Modern bikes, like modern cars, are based upon CANBus (Controller Area Network Bus) technology where computers and control units are networked, talk to each other and are operated via software commands.
I get that, but why on earth would anyone want, or think we want, a software-controlled steering lock - especially given the prevalence of defects in software. Seems to be in the same vein as the keyless ignition and petrol cap to me .... a case of "what could we do with this technology"? straying into dumb ideas and gimmicks rather than focussing on "what does the customer really want or need"?
Trouble is most customers are magpies and are buying into the shiny gimmicks. Keyless sells so it's worth it for them to put it on
I have keyless ignition and petrol cap and they are great, but I do take, and share your concerns. Is adding complexity for marginal gains the way forward ? Judging by how things are developing the answer is Yes. I look at old air-cooled bikes and think "Yeah one of those would be nice", but get on my Multistrada and think "Wow". Technology moves on, it is what it does. I feel a new thread coming on.
Indeed it does. I work with as a consultant and trainer with SW developers and dev managers day-in day-out. I still cut code myself for fun. I'm generally pro-technology, yet when it comes to bikes I'm a bit of an old fart and have an aversion to all the modern electronic gizmos beyond fuel injection.
It needs to be electronic to work without a key which is a selling point. Easy of use when moving around with gear. A gizmo I do love wen on tour. Keep a none coded key in the cubby hole for fuel stops and never worry bout loosing ur key and no messing wen you just stopped for a quick break. We all do it, put our gear on to remember the key is around our neck or where ever and have to strip down. Now it's not an issue, I do however agree it's another thing to go wrong but a great thing to have wen its working.
I agree with you Ff6022 It make life so easy just to step off the bike while holding the ignition slider down, no having to faff around taking your gloves off to look for a key. it's simple.
I don't use anything though my bike has an alarm, and other things, but to be fair It is not often I leave it somewhere for long that puts it at a high risk. But most Bikes are just lifted into a van when Stolen, so a steering lock makes no difference, and there is the fact they are pretty easy to break anyhow. I suppose if I had to leave it in a higher risk area for a long period of time on a regular basis, than a chain would help more, chained to something solid, but even now days a battery angle grinder cuts though them pretty quick
I had a 6 day old Fireblade 'lifted' in the mid-90's, from under my bedroom window and presumably by the 4 blokes and 2 lengths of wood through the wheels onto van technique, which was recovered by the Police and had no apparent damage, except they had pinged the steering lock lug off the frame. Therefore required a new frame, full strip down/rebuild, hence full write off! I'm not convinced they are much of a deterrent or worthwhile addition?
Mine got stolen from right out front too. The armed response guy next door thought we were moving furniture [emoji30]
I think that anything that is a deterrent will help to stop the casual thief but a determined thief will not be stopped by anything as seen by the safe box robbery recently. I have a padlocked door, another padlocked door, a chain, a disc lock, an alarm, a steering lock and an immobiliser - oh and data tagged. For a determined thief that lot would only be a irritation.
We gave up that fight when we moved from points ignition to electronic black boxes 40 years ago. Since then it's been black boxes all the way, on everything. It's too late in the day to have a phobia about electronic gizmos.
Black boxes are here to stay but what they do is still very much up for discussion, not all gizmos have equal merit.
Fortunately new features are typically introduced in cars (often Mercedes first), and only several years later spread down to bikes (often Ducatis first) by which time the teething problems have been extracted long since. ABS brakes, central locking, remote keys, traction control, LED lights, etc have all been around for many years now. Even if you buy a bike with the latest gizmos, you are not really an early adopter. This is one of the reasons why I have a Mercedes and a Ducati, incidentally.
